Underthinking Politics and Sport

So last night I stayed up and watched the 2nd Semi-final in the Cricket world cup, between arch-rivals India and Pakistan. Having stayed up to watch the 1st semi the night before and going to work both days, I have had about 8 hours sleep in the last 3 days.

This will be me, in a couple of hours

Now this term rivals and enemies is bandied about a lot during sports. I.e the Australian NZ rivalry in everything. But for Pakistan and India it runs deeper than just a standard sibling rivalry that we have with Big Brother Australia.

Stupid Australia, always making us wear stupid hats, and poking us in the eyes.

For those of you unaware, they used to be one country, until roughly 1933, when the Muslims living in India decided they wanted a piece of land to call their own. Specifically the Mulsims living in the Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind, and BaluchisTAN regions, hence their snazzy name, the I was added to make pronunciation easier. But the problem is that the India's weren't quite ready to give up the Kashmir.

And I can understand why, it is a beautiful fabric

Kidding, it is Beautiful, no wonder they both want it.

 So it is more like a sibling rivalry between separated conjoined twins when they couldn't decide who would get the Kidney.

"Seriously, I get the Kidney!"

 And its not like they have rudimentary sticks and arrows to fight each other with over this region, both countries are Nuclear powers, so it is one of the worlds powder kegs. So tread carefully.

Although their Uniforms, make you wonder if they are bluffing regarding the nuclear weapons

 So they say you shouldn't mix sport and politics but it seems to be wonderful thing, Nelson Mandela united a country by poisoning a rival sporting nation,

"No one suspects a thing"

 the German and Allied soldiers skivvied off to play football when they were meant to be shooting each other

"Oi you are meant to be shooting each other, what are you doing?"

The Soviets juiced up all their citizens to win Olympics and prove their superiority, because that was cheaper than trying to get to the moon.

Turning Women into men, was easier and cheaper than getting to the moon.

So jovially the other day someone suggested the Indians and Pakistanis put the Kashmir on the line in last nights game, and that would end the dispute. That was a joke but then I got thinking, countries have these emotionally charge series over these meaningless trophies.

Seriously I could buy one of those for like $500

Why not have a series every four years between Pakistan and India, where the winner gets the Kashmir region for those 4 years, I mean its not like they have stability at the moment with all the fighting. And most countries have elections ever 4 years so change of administration wouldn't be that big a deal.
That would amp up the pressure on the Series, and make it the biggest deal in world cricket.

"I won these burnt stumps"

"We just won 186,000 sq km of beautiful mountain region"

"Damn"

 Note the land area I gave excludes the section of the Kashmir that the Chinese lay claim to, so maybe once we get China up to sped on Cricket, then a tri-series could be in order.

Don't worry they are working on it

But until then we just work with the Pakistani- Indian parts, they seem to be the bitterest rivals, the only other one I could think of that comes close is Serbia vs Croatia, especially in Basketball were they used to be World Champions competing together as Yugoslavia. If you are looking for a good watch, get hold of Once Brothers a documentary presented by Vlade Divacs about the tearing apart of friendships within the Yugoslavian Basketball team. Can you think of any other rivalry that run this deep?


  

Underthinking UDRS

Okay I already know this post will not meet everyone's tastes, since its about cricket. But I make no apologies cricket is one of my favourite things in the world, and also the cricket world cup is currently on, so its about time I talked about cricket. The cricket world cup has actually been on for about a month now, but there is still another two weeks to go so I have plenty of time. Possibly a little too much time.

Hashim Amla had a five o'clock shadow at the start of the World Cup

What I have been thinking about a lot lately, is the UDRS or the Umpire Decision Review system, which is basically a challenge system for the players to challenge an Umpires decision using technology available. It is a good idea in theory, and does show that the ICC is a little more forward thinking than FIFA when it comes to using technology.

FIFA committee on use of Technology

Basically each team gets two unsuccessful challenges per innings per match, the system was designed to stop howling decisions affecting the outcome of the game, i.e someone being given out when they are not, or being given not out when they are.
I like this system but there are a couple of things that I don't quite get.

1/. LBW decisions

When it comes to LBW decisions there are a lot of factors coming into play, and it is testament to the Umpires that they get so many of these decisions right. The ball can't be pitching on leg, the impact must be inline, and you should think the ball would have hit the stumps if not for the batsmens leg.
Sometimes they get it wrong, and this is where UDRS comes into play, it tracks the ball for the actual flight and then simulates the remaining journey to see if the ball would hit the stumps.

UDRS in action

The reason it has a large box saying NOT OUT is because how much faith that is put in the technology depends on the umpires orginal decision. If the umpire said the batsmen was not out, and the fielding team appeals this, then more than half the ball needs to be hitting the stumps to overturn the decision, if on the other hand the umpire said the batsmen was out, and the batting team appeals, only a edge of the ball needs to be hitting the stumps for original out to be upheld.

"I told you, you were out, you Son of a B***h"

Now I understand the reason for this is to give the umpire the benefit of the doubt, but too me you either say the technology is unfallible enough that if the ball just touches the stumps the batsmen is out regardless of who asks, or you say that the technology is not accurate, in which case the more then half of the ball rule should stand for both sides asking.

 Mark Boucher,I hate that guy use the half the ball rule.

And to me, sometimes too much faith is put in the technology, if the ball hits the batsmens pad close to immediately after the ball pitches surely there is not enough information to accurately predict the path. How does the technology take into account hardness of pitch, foot marks, softness of ball?

In some situations it would be more accurate to use this lady to make the decision.

2/. Excessive appealing 


The second thing that gets me, is one of the reasons to implement UDRS was to avoid excessive appealing, where by a player will appeal at anything even if he has no faith at all the batsmen is actually out.

I think the closer you get your arse to the ground the more you think the batsmen is out

The thing is we still see the situation were the fielding team will vehemently appeal a decision, and it will be given not out, but then they don't challenge. Basically what they are saying is I didn't actually think the batsmen was out, I was just trying it on.

"We almost had you that time"

I propose there should be an amendment to the UDRS rules if your orginal appeal last longer than 10 seconds, or louder than 110 db, or your arse touches the ground during the appeal, you automatically use one of your challenges. This way you only get players appealing this strongly when they actually think the batsmen is out.


3/. It is designed to stop howlers not benefit of doubt

The third thing that bugs me about the UDRS is it was introduced to reduce the number of howler decisions made on the field. So if a batsmen hits the covers of the ball into his pads he won't be given out LBW, or if there is a clear edge missed by the umpire the batsmen is correctly given out. For example the below video was orginally not given out on the field.

The problem is with having 2 challenges, players will tend to use at least one of the decisions, on a whim and potentially they will get it going in their favour, but only slightly. So the umpire was wrong, but within a reasonable human error, the ball was pitching half a mm outside leg, so the batsmen gets to stay in. I am sure some of the times the batsmen appeals not because he thinks he is not out, but more he is hoping he is not out. Perhaps the answer here is to reduce the number of unsuccessful challenges to 1, this way, the challenge will only be taken when the player is sure they are wronged and not on the off chance that they were.

Dar: "You actually want to challenge?"
Ponting: "Yeah why not mate, give it a nugde"

But they are my thoughts on UDRS, let me know what you think?

Holidaying Underthinking it styles Part 1.

Hello Underthinkers, its been a long time I hope you have been well. I have finished my first draft of my thesis so I will have plenty more time to regale you with my stories now. Well rant about stuff, but I thought I would begin the new year a little differently.

You see I am not always an overthinker, there is one area of my life where I am an underthinker and that is travelling, I find the best experiences are had when no planning is done, and you let the wind decide where you go.

My ideal travel vehicle.

So this new years I waited till the last minute to see what offers were on the table before I decided what to do. The offers were diverse and numerous, there was the stay in Dunedin, or get in a car and head to various holiday spots, Poolburn with Botts, Twizel with Yam, Aviemore with Geezer, Wanaka with Blakey-pooh, Nelson with Johnny, Queenstown with Mike, or just cruising with my man Bear Grylls

His trips always end with drinking urine so I decided against it

Since I am such a vibrant person that brings joy to all those I know, I decided to try and hit as many of those spots as humanly possible. The plan was formulated I would convoy to Poolburn with Yam to see Botts, from there we would continue the convoy towards to Omarama where Yam could continue onto Twizel and I could diverge to Aviemore, to spend actual new years eve.
The next day we rendezvous in Omarama and continue to Queenstown for a couple of days of rest and recreation.
I admit this is starting to sound well-planned, a little too well planned even...

The "Aaron's 2010-2011 New Year" Team

But I find that even travelling based on the wind requires a partial template, so that if the wind is not blowing you still have something to do. And besides staying in tents and houses require no pre-booking so you aren't locked into anything.

So the packing commenced, a summer holiday in New Zealand requires certain items.

Google really has taken over the world.

There are a couple of requirements of the holiday cricket bat.
1/. Ideally it is a generic brand, maybe a give away from a company, many years my holiday bat was a Wattyl paint bat.
If it is a big name bat such as Gunn-Moore or Gray-Nicholls, then it must be at least 10 years old, preferably your childhood bat, that has been left in the rain, and has big chunks taken out of the edges, and a liberally coating of black tape to hold it together.

2/. It must be no bigger than a size 5, to counter the one idiot on holiday that wants to be the hero, and attempts Sixes every ball, the key to holiday cricket is limited movement.

The ball has less requirements anything you can find really, a tennis ball will suffice, although the electrical tape on one side to induce swing, is a good addition.

The next item required is the Chilly Bin (Thats a cooler for you Americans, or an Esky for the Australians, or a Grrr Grrr grrr for all the literate bears reading this)

Picture unrelated

As long as your chilly bin can fit the required number of beverages and food, then it is a good size. Although in the ideal world you want the bin to be large enough to be used as the stumps in your cricket game, or as a seat.

If you are travelling around in the summer there will be plenty of Barbeques to throw food on, so travel with some good BBQ food always. For this I personally endorse sizzlers

The Devils food

 Now I hear the traditionalists balking, many a people publicly decry the sizzler as not a real sausage, and I will concede they are not allowed to be sold with the other meat products. But I have yet to met someone that once having tasted a sizzler maintains their resistance.

There main benefit is they require very little cooking to be made safe. Now we purchasing Sizzlers there are three main kinds Cheese, Double Cheese, and Triple Cheese. I am not sure if Cheese is actually an SI unit or not, so I am not sure what is the actual quantity of cheese in Cheese. But rest assured Double Cheese is the bare minimum you want, and Triple cheese is perfect quantity of cheese.

The last requirement is of course the tent to provide you with shelter.

Well space for your harem is important, this is of impractical size.

The holiday tent, should contain at least one pole that is been held together by duct tape, and happy thoughts ....

Flight and Keeping tents up were Tinks specialities...

The peg bag accompanying the tent must contain at least 6 different types of peg. If all you pegs match then you are doing it wrong, or you are a member of the royal family.
At least one type of peg, must be completely and utterly useless, either too weak to enter the hard ground, or too fat to fit through the loops on the tent. It is really just there to frustrate the tent putter upper.

WHY WON'T YOU FIT!! STUPID F****NG PEG!!!

Okay the car was packed and the plan was flimsy but existent so it was time to leave with no expectations of what would happen or what I would see. Stay tuned to find out what happened. Be rest assured it is a tale of magic, intrigue, adventure, sadness, happiness,  and plenty of underthinking....